Marin supervisors adopt $555M budget

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $555 million budget it said reflected the community’s values and priorities.

The fiscal 2017-18 budget, which begins July 1, features a 2.6 percent increase from the current fiscal year budget. The spending plan includes a $440.8 million general fund budget, up 3.2 percent over the current year.

Supervisor Damon Connolly said the over-arching theme of the budget was “continued fiscal restraint combined with strategic use of limited and one-time funds consistent with our stated policy goals.”

One-time expenses in the 2017-18 budget total $5.5 million and include:

• $3 million for roads and storm damage repairs

• $1.6 million for the Tomales Fire Station replacement

• $450,000 fuel dispensary system replacement

• $375,000 for a program to address sea level rise

• $100,000 for a library flagship vehicle.

The budget also allocates $500,000 for the first year of a two-year Laura’s Law pilot program for assisted outpatient mental health treatment and $150,000 to pay extra for electricity that comes from 100 percent renewable sources.

“I want to acknowledge the budget adjustments to accommodate Laura’s Law,” said Supervisor Dennis Rodoni. Rodoni, who was elected to the board in November, provided the third vote necessary to win approval for the pilot program.

Rodoni also expressed satisfaction that the board opted to spend more to purchase MCE’s “deep green” electricity, which comes from 100 percent renewable sources.

“I think it is really wonderful that we did that,” Rodoni said.

Both Rodoni and board president Judy Arnold brought up the county’s decision not to grant licenses to any medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I think we still need to recognize the challenges around recreational marijuana: cost managing it and the opportunities around taxing,” Rodoni said.

Arnold said, “We need to seriously look at the revenue possible from medical marijuana before legalization commences in January 2018.”

Arnold said she and Connolly, who serve on the subcommittee overseeing medical marijuana, are looking into licensing delivery services “with no product sold on site and only a small sample to show patients.”

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Arnold also said she would like to see spending on road maintenance increased whenever possible.

“There is no question that our county and city roads are a mess,” she said “I believe that smooth and well-maintained roads are the clearest signs to the public that we care and that we budget their tax dollars wisely.”

Supervisor Kate Sears said, “Of course the big unknown out there is the uncertainty about our state and federal politics — what is going to happen with our income stream.”

In March county officials said that if the Trump administration’s federal budget were enacted, it would cost the county millions of dollars in lost funding. And that same month county health officials estimated that Marin could lose $100 million a year in Medicaid funding if the Affordable Care Act were replaced by a Republican alternative.

State funding is also expected to tighten; California is already seeing falling income tax and corporate tax revenue as the national economic expansion marks its eighth year, the fourth longest in U.S. history.

Sears said, “We’re doing the best we can to manage and prioritize what we can control.”

The budget approved Tuesday anticipates that the county’s property tax revenue, the largest single source of discretionary revenue for the county’s general fund, will increase 5.5 percent in 2017-18. Growth in property tax revenue has begun to slow and is expected to hover around 5 percent over the next five years, slightly below its 20-year average.

County budget analysts have projected a general fund operating shortfall of $7.4 million beginning in fiscal year 2018-19 that will grow larger each year at least through fiscal year 2020-21. These shortfalls do not include any changes to federal and state funding policies.